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JOINT CIRCULAR No

JOINT CIRCULAR No. 139/1998/TTLT-BTC-BKHCNMT OF OCTOBER 23, 1998 GUIDING THE COLLECTION, MANAGEMENT AND USE OF THE FEES FOR EVALUATION AND REGISTRATION OF TECHNOLOGY TRANSFER CONTRACTS

Pursuant to Decree No.45/1998/ND-CP of July 1st, 1998 of the Government stipulating in detail the technology transfer;

Pursuant to Decision No.276/CT of July 28, 1992 of the Chairman of the Council of Ministers (now the Prime Minister) on the uniform management of fees and charges;

The Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Science, Technology and Environment hereby jointly provide the following guidance for the collection, management and use of the fees for evaluation and registration of technology transfer contracts already approved by the authorized agencies:

I. FEE PAYERS

All organizations and/or individuals applying for approval and registration of technology transfer contracts (TTCs) under Decree No.45/1998/ND-CP of July 1st, 1998 of the Government shall have to pay fees for the evaluation and registration of TTCs (fees for short).

II. FEE LEVELS

- The fee for evaluation of a TTC shall be calculated at the rate of 0.1% (one thousandth) of the total contract value but must not exceed 20 million VND nor be lower than 2 million VND.

- Parties that apply for supplements and/or amendments to a TTC shall have to pay an evaluation fee equal to 0.1% (one thousandth) of the total value of the supplemented and/or amended contract. However, the evaluation fee must not exceed 10 million VND nor be lower than 1 million VND.

- For TTCs which do not require approval but must be registered with the Ministry of Science, Technology and Environment, the applicable fee level shall be 200,000 VND for each contract.

- The fees for evaluation and registration of TTCs shall be collected in Vietnam Dong. Where the evaluation fee is calculated on the contract value in foreign currency(ies), it must be converted into Vietnam Dong at the inter-bank exchange rate(s) announced by the State Bank at the time of evaluation fee calculation.

III. MANAGEMENT AND USE OF EVALUATION FEE

1. The agency competent to evaluate and approve TTCs (hereafter referred to as the evaluating agency) as defined in Decree No.45/1998/ND-CP of July 1st, 1998 of the Government shall directly collect fees in accordance with the provisions of this Circular.

2. All collected charges and fees are State budget revenues. The evaluating agency is entitled to temporarily withhold 50 % of the collected amounts to spend on the activities of evaluating and approving TTCs, the remainder shall be remitted to the State budget.

3. The evaluating agency shall be entitled to open account(s) at the State Treasury for managing and monitoring the use of the above-said 50% temporarily withheld from the total collected fee, in order to promptly cover expenses arising in the evaluation course as specified in Clause 5, Section III of this Circular.

4. Quarterly, basing itself on the settlement made by the evaluating agency, the finance agency of the same level shall fill the procedures for crediting or debiting into the State budget the amounts which have been actually spent for the right purposes, according to the prescribed regime and limits and with valid vouchers, by the evaluating agency from the temporarily withheld amounts.

The evaluating agency shall have to report on the use of the temporarily withheld amounts to its managing agency in order to make the final statement of amounts with the finance agency of the same level according to the current financial regime.

5. The TTC evaluation and registration fees shall be used for the following purposes and comply with the State’s current regulations on financial management, prescribed limits and regime of expenditures:

a) Expenses for organizations and/or individuals participating in the study, evaluation and appraisal of documents related to the technologies and technology transfer of projects, under the economic contracts signed between such organizations and/or individuals with the agencies in charge of approving TTCs (in cases where the evaluating agency is incapable of evaluating);

b) Compiling evaluation dossiers and consulting critical experts;

c) Expenses on meetings of the projects’ evaluation council;

d) Expenses on the inspection and evaluation of technologies of TTCs, and inspection of technology transfer of the projects;

e) Expenses on the purchase of information and documents for evaluation;

f) Expenses on professional training and instruction;

g) Expenses on printing and translation of documents;

h) Additional expenses for procurement of working facilities, office equipment in service of evaluation activities (according to the approved estimates);

i) Payment of allowances for over-time and intensive work to officials of the evaluating agency who personally carry out the dossier evaluation and procedures for collection of fees, but the maximum allowance must not exceed 3 months of basic wage of an official.

IV. PROCEDURAL PROCESS OF COLLECTING AND PAYING FEES

1. The evaluating agency, upon receiving applications or dossiers requesting the evaluation of the to-be-transferred technology(ies) from organizations and/or individuals shall have to immediately collect the registration fee and the minimum payable fee prescribed for each type of contract (2 million VND for a new TTC or 1 million VND for an amended and/or supplemented TTC).

After completing the evaluation and determination of the prices to be paid for the technology transfer, the evaluating agency shall base itself on the fee level under this Circular’s guidance to collect the remaining payable fee (if any) from the organizations and/or individuals requesting the evaluation.

2. Procedures for remitting collected fees to the State budget:

- Within 5 days from the date of collecting the fees, the evaluating agency shall have to submit the declarations of all collected fees and the amounts to be remitted to the State budget (50% of the total collected fee) to the tax agency directly managing it.

- Upon receiving the declarations submitted by the evaluating agency, the tax agency shall verify and compare them with the receipt vouchers already issued and used to determine the amounts which must be remitted to the State budget. Within 5 days after receiving the declarations from the evaluating agency, the tax agency shall have to notify the evaluating agency of the amounts which must be remitted to the budget (50% of the total collected fee amounts), the time limit for remittance, the corresponding chapters, categories, sections and items in the State budget’s table of contents and the amount allowed to be temporarily retained to cover the evaluation activities.

- Basing itself on the notices of the tax agency, the evaluating agency shall immediately remit the payable amount to the State budget and direct the remainder into its account(s) opened at the State Treasury as stipulated in Clause 3, Section III of this Circular.

V. IMPLEMENTATION ORGANIZATION

1. The responsibilities of the evaluating agency:

a) To publicly announce the fee levels and the procedures for collecting fees at the collecting places;

b) To observe the regime of accounting books, vouchers and reports on the use of fees in strict compliance with the State’s current regulations on accounting and statistics.

c) To manage, use and settle the collected fees with the finance agency directly managing it according to the current regulations on management authorization.

2. Responsibility of the tax agency and the State Treasury:

The tax agency of the locality where the TTC-evaluating agency’s head office is located shall issue fee receipts to the evaluating agency. The tax agency and the State Treasury shall have to manage, use and conduct the settlement of receipts according to the current regulations on management of stamps and seals.

3. At the end of each budgetary year, the TTC-evaluating agency shall have to settle the fee amount used for evaluation activities with the finance agency of the same level as prescribed. The collected amounts which have not been used shall have to be promptly and fully remitted to the State budget.

4. This Circular takes effect after its signing. Any problems arising in the course of implementation shall be promptly reported to the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Science, Technology and Environment for study and solution.

For the Minister of Science, Technology and Environment

Vice Minister

CHU HAO

For the Minister of Finance

Vice Minister

TRAN VAN TA